SCHOOLS 



The author of the article on Chicheley in the Dictionary of National 

 Biography placed him at school at St. John the Baptist's College, Win- 

 chester, a college which never existed. As a matter of fact Wykeham 

 had kept a grammar school at Winchester since 1373. 



The imaginary college of St. John the Baptist has probably been 

 evolved from a letter of William of Wykeham in 1388 ' directing that 

 ' while the college remained in the parish of St. John the Baptist,' during 

 the erection of the present buildings, ' it should attend the parish church 

 on Sundays and Saints' Days.' 



As the latest historian of All Souls College,^ following the Dic- 

 tionary,^ has repeated the error, there is great danger that history will be 

 saddled for all time with an imaginary college of St. John the Baptist, an 

 imaginary school in it, and Archbishop Chicheley as one of its imaginary 

 alumni. It is most probable that before going to Winchester College 

 Chicheley was educated at Higham Ferrers Grammar School under 

 Henry Barton, for the statutes of Winchester required its scholars to 

 have been completely instructed in plain song and ' old Donatus,' or 

 elementary Latin grammar, before admission. 



On 2 May, 1422,* Archbishop Chicheley obtained letters patent from 

 the king in right of the duchy of Lancaster, witnessed, not by the king, 

 then dying in France, but by John, duke of Bedford, ' Keeper of 

 England,' enabling him to found a college at Higham Ferrers at the 

 cost of 300 marks, i.e. some jr4,ooo, paid into the hanaper. The licence 

 was to found ' on certain land now belonging to the archbishop, contain- 

 ing 3 acres, partly built on, a certain perpetual college of eight chaplains, 

 one of whom is to be master and have and exercise the rule and govern- 

 ance of such college, and of four clerks,' of which chaplains or clerks one 

 is to be deputed and assigned to give instruction in and teach grammar, 

 and another to give instruction in and teach singing there, and of six 

 choristers, to perform divine service,' and so forth, and to pray for the souls 

 of the king and queen, of Henry IV and Mary his wife, and of the parents 

 and benefactors of the archbishop. 



The patent also contained a licence for the grant of the manor or 

 priory of Merseye in Essex, an alien priory, belonging to St. Ouen's, 

 Rouen, 'in free and perpetual alms, in aid of the maintenance of the persons 

 for the time being in the said college, and of certain poor there, according 

 to the orders of the said Archbishop and his heirs.' This is the first 

 reference to the hospital or bede-house, which was always treated as a part 

 of the foundation of the college, but was, like the grammar school, already 

 an existing institution. 



' Lowth, Life of Wykeham. App. 364 from Reg. Wykeham, iii, 88. The date is wrongly guessed 

 in 'Neiv College by H. Rashdal! and R. S. Rait, 1901, p. 37, as 1374 or 1375. 



" College Histories: ^11 Souls College, by C. G. Robertson. 



' The Dictionary repeats the story, derived from a local historian, that William of Wykeham picked 

 Chicheley up as a poor ploughboy eating his scanty meal off his mother's lap — whatever that may mean. 

 As his father was mayor the story is absurd. 



* Pat. 10 Henry V, m. 3. 

 The exact words, which have been misinterpreted, are : ' unde unus eorundem capellanorum 

 sive clericorum ad gramaticam, et alius c.ipellanus sive clericus ad cantum instrucndum et docenJum 

 ibidem deputatur et assignetur, ac etiam sex Choristarum.' 



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